


Three minutes

by venom_for_free



Series: Fantaesy [5]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Canon Related, Drama, Feels, Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Modern Era, One Shot, Pining, Post-Canon, Romance, relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:09:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28129656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/venom_for_free/pseuds/venom_for_free
Summary: Three minutes until the train arrived.Yuri stared at the giant clock in the middle of the train station, so he knew how much time was left.Three minutes.Three minutes to change the path their lives would take. Oh, if only he had done something. But what would there have been to do?
Relationships: Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky
Series: Fantaesy [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848073
Comments: 26
Kudos: 24





	Three minutes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Taedae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taedae/gifts).



> Another installment of my short fics for Taedae with the prompt   
> "Three minutes until the train arrives."  
> I hope you enjoy it.

Three minutes until the train arrived. 

Yuri stared at the giant clock in the middle of the train station, so he knew how much time was left. 

Three minutes. 

Three minutes to change the path their lives would take. Oh, if only he had done something. But what would there have been to do? 

He clung to Otabek as hard as he could. Would it have changed something if he begged? After all, he did all he could and it still didn’t mean anything. Or did he?

“Please don’t leave.” Words fell like raindrops onto the concrete of their embrace. It tightened.

“It’s just for a while.” It wouldn’t be. 

Could he have changed something? 

Three minutes. 

“Why do you have to leave?” The question didn’t demand an answer, not really. Yuri knew why things were happening the way they were. It was the end of summer, Otabek had to return to Kazakhstan to train at his home rink. Their time in Russia was over. 

No more happy mornings. No more lazily opened eyes, soft smiles, gentle touches. No more training together, no more holding onto one another when they fell asleep. No more. 

“I don’t want to.” Otabek didn’t answer the question Yuri asked, but he answered the one he meant. 

_ You could stay,  _ is what he should have said. He didn’t. Things were hard enough as they were. But maybe, if he had been a little more egoistic … Once upon a time in another life, Yuri followed Viktor across the globe to retrieve him from Japan. His efforts were as fruitful as his wishes to hold Otabek back. So maybe it was just him. Perhaps he wasn’t good enough. Perhaps he was a child of pain, kissed by Fortuna’s evil twin, damned to a life of suffering and anger and missed chances. Lost opportunity. 

Lost love. 

He hadn’t even said it. 

Two minutes. 

Anticipation was one hell of an enemy. He dreaded the clock striking thirty-three, when Otabek’s train was supposed to arrive, but at the same time, Yuri counted the seconds down, if only to enjoy every last one. If he didn’t bid them goodbye individually, what did they mean? What did this mean? 

Otabek tightened his hold. Friends didn’t hug friends for minutes in the middle of a train station, where everyone was taking pictures of them. Yuri didn’t care. He would, in the future. He would look back and wonder what else the cameras could have depicted, had he been brave enough to say the three little words in three minutes. 

But the mark was lost and the time kept running, so Yuri swallowed his tongue along with his hopes and dreams. There would be another summer, another winter, a hundred competitions to share a bed, a hotel room, breakfast. A million chances to talk. Over text. Over video call. In-person. 

None of them were right (now). 

The handles of the clock moved steadily, a background rhythm to Yuri’s speeding heart. 

One minute. 

People stared. Were they part of the reason he never managed to say what was on his mind? Were they binding his tongue to the bottom of his mouth, endlessly heavy, impossible to express what should be easy but wasn’t? 

Maybe, if he had managed to say those three words, Otabek wouldn’t have gotten on the train. He would have stayed, cupped Yuri’s cheek, kissed him. Right in front of all those cameras. Right in front of the world. Yuri would have pictures of a moment showing them like they were, truly were, instead of a pinboard of staring into each other’s eyes, mute. 

Bravery was not the absence of fear. Bravery was acting in spite of it. That day, only in that moment, Yuri had not been brave. And he would not forgive himself. 

Zero minutes. 

He took a deep breath. Waited. No train. Of course, nothing was ever on time. Yuri exhaled the stress that kept him locked tight. Otabek never let him go. “You have to visit again.” 

“I promise.” 

The train arrived, but Yuri couldn’t tell how much time passed until then. Everything between the promise and the railroad was lost in the crevices of his mind, fallen through the cracks when darkness washed out the memories of their last moments together. 

He tightened his hold. Otabek hugged back. 

Perhaps then. Perhaps at that point, he should have said something. Anything. _ I love you _ . Three words. So easy. Stupid. But Yuri kept his mouth shut, did not kiss his best friend, did not ask him to take the later train, did not demand he'd stay, just for a few more days. 

Back then, he told himself he couldn’t be that selfish. Now he wished he would have been. 

Otabek climbed onto the train, three minutes after it should have left, and Yuri waved. He could have pulled him back. Could have kept him in Saint Petersburg, in his bed, in his heart. Close. With him. But he didn’t, so Otabek disappeared inside the passenger car, luggage dragging behind him. 

And Yuri dragged himself home. 

Three hours. 

Three hours until his phone rang and time stopped. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends.   
> I wanted to keep the ending ambiguous, so there won't be a second part.   
> But I would like to hear your thoughts, what is the phone call about?
>
>> Thank you, as always, to my wonderful editor [Taedae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taedae/pseuds/Taedae), and to you as the reader.  
> I'm also on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/venom-for-free)[, Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/venom_for_free/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/venom_for_free)


End file.
